Several cryptocurrency and blockchain associations advocating for the industry are pushing for a “prompt confirmation” of Brian Quintenz as chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
In a Wednesday letter to US President Donald Trump, representatives from several crypto organizations reiterated their support for Quintenz’s confirmation in the Senate following the president’s nomination.
Signatories included the Crypto Council for Innovation, Blockchain Association, Decentralization Research Center, DeFi Education Fund, The Digital Chamber, Satoshi Action Fund and Solana Policy Institute
The advocacy organizations argued that Quintenz was “exceptionally well-suited” to head the CFTC in part due to his experience with and understanding of digital assets.
After being nominated to chair the agency in February, he was referred to the Senate Agriculture Committee, which delayed a vote days before the chamber was scheduled to break for an August recess.
The committee said that the delay came following a request from the White House. An August report also suggested that Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss pressed Trump to reconsider Quintenz’s nomination, claiming he would not fully enact the president’s crypto agenda as CFTC chair.
Wednesday letter to Donald Trump. Source: Crypto Council for Innovation
“As the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets Report clearly articulated, the CFTC has many critical, complex, and nuanced goals ahead of it, including working with Congress to establish a comprehensive federal market structure framework with appropriate oversight of digital asset commodities, in order to advance your Administration’s agenda,” said the letter, adding that:
Installing a permanent Chairman to the CFTC is absolutely critical to realizing these goals […]”
Quintenz previously served as a CFTC commissioner under Trump from 2017 to 2021, having been nominated by former US President Barack Obama in 2016.
Related: Trump’s CFTC chair pick won’t push president for bipartisan commission
Financial regulator facing a staff exodus
Even if Quintenz’s confirmation were to move quickly through the Senate once the chamber returns from recess on Sept. 3, the regulator still has vacancies that could slow its work related to crypto and otherwise. Currently, the five-member panel of commissioners is staffed only by acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham, and Commissioner Kristin Johnson.
Commissioners Summer Mersinger and Christy Goldsmith Romero, as well as former chair Rostin Behnam, departed the CFTC earlier this year. Johnson said she would leave before 2026, and Pham said she planned to move to the private sector if Quintenz were nominated, suggesting that the prospective chair could be the sole voice until Trump picked other candidates to staff the agency.
In a statement to Cointelegraph, a representative for the Crypto Council for Innovation highlighted the need to confirm CFTC leadership amid the two-commissioner panel, no permanent chair, and pending legislation for crypto market structure.
Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the lead voices pushing for the chamber to pass market structure, said the bill — which could clarify the roles the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission will have over crypto — will be signed into law before 2026.
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